Revisiting the Vortex Quilts

First, the winner of this week's Liberty Garden fat quarter bundle is Angie of North Carolina. Congratulations, Angie!

I was working on a version of my Modern Vortex Quilt using more than two colors. You know, the Vortex Quilt . . .

Vortex Quilt, c. 1910

And my version . . .

Modern Vortex Quilt

A student from a few years ago used multiple colors for those wedges and I decided I wanted to make the same sort of sample. Jane does amazing long arm quilting, too!

Modern Vortex by Jane H. of Maryland

Here is a sample from last Tuesday's class. Linda B of Pennsylvania shared this pic with me (and gave her permission to share it:

Vortex quilt by Linda B. of PA

Back to that technicolor quilt. I began with 6 colored fabrics and a "white" solid background.

Multi-colored Dresden fan wedges

But, what happens when you THINK you have the SAME fabrics for the light fabric in the strips/strata and the background squares? Holy Cow! Was I disillusioned! Those white dresden tips are supposed to disappear into the background. Oh, well, right?

Multi-Colored Center with Brandon Mably and Kaffe Fassett setting triangles

I NEVER saw the difference in the two "white" fabrics until I photographed them on my deck. Was I ever WRONG! Now I have to start over (NOT) But, of course, the setting triangles are beautiful in that Philip Jacobs print (Brocade Peony), right? And the Aboriginal Dots by Kaffe in purple - well, that's all I had in my stash!

And, of course, I am NOT starting over. This is just a teaching sample to help my students understand what NOT to do when they are in the "fabric collection" part of making a quilt. I certainly am NOT taking anything apart.

When you make a Vortex quilt with all these colors, you have to cut for two blocks to get one. I have all the leftover wedges to make another center. But I'll wait until I no longer teach the class. They are part of my samples.